Takemura Itsuki

BURBLEEEEE. I gulped in the water from the bottle with my head tilted up, water flowing like a fountain from the bottle an inch above my mouth, and some drops of water flowing from the edges of my mouth to my chin. I then moved the bottle in my right hand down, and my face to the front. I looked at the thick sword kept in front of me, lying on the ground where I sat with my legs crossed. I was sitting inside the practice arena of the restaurant with fighting equipment such as swords and shields, punching bags, and other practice material lying all over the place. The ground was made of wood where I sat. My eyes glared at the sword, lost into infinity, with the open bottle in my right hand, and my left hand empty.

“Tomorrow… is the exam.”

***

Tachibana Ichika

It was evening time as I stood in front of the shelf, looking at Yumiko as she was preparing coffee as she stood on the other side. As she poured coffee from the kettle into the cups, she tilted her eyes at me for a second, looked at me lost in my thoughts with my eyes glaring the coffee, and then turned to the coffee again with a smile. “The registration exam is tomorrow, Ichika.”

I nodded, still lost in my thought. I then turned my head up at her. “That’s the only thing in my head right now.”

“Don’t worry, Ichika,” She replied, pouring the coffee. “Itsuki is a good fighter. I’m sure he’s gonna complete it with flying colors.”

“Only the best ones are gonna be selected for the rankings. I’m worried he might not be able to make it.”

“He’s practiced a lot in the recent days, learning from Yamazaki-san day and night. And don’t worry. Hundreds of people are selected every year.” Yumiko put the kettle down beside the tray of cups, took up the cups, turned towards me, and kept the tray beside me. “He’s not an amateur now, Ichika. He’s gonna make it easily.”

“And what after the rankings? What if he’s not able to even enter the competition?”

“But why does he need to enter the competition anyway?” Yumiko asked with a smile. “Yamazaki-san is making him enter the rankings and the competition only because he wanna know where Takemura-kun stands. That’s it. It’s not like he wanna do it or it’s important for any one of us, Ichika.”

I turned my head down right at the tray beside me, moved my hands up from the shelf, took the tray up, turned back, and walked to serve at the single row of outer dining area right in front of the shelf. I kept it in front of the table which was just on the left of the entrance, turned back, and then stood in front of her again. “I’m just worried a little.”

“Just celebrate it like a festive, girl,” She said softly and turned down to her table again on the other side of the shelf in front of her.

DING DING.

I turned back. “Welcome to The Bar, a restaurant for both the big and the—”

“Hello, Tachibana-chan,” Kurayami stood on the open door with a smile on his face. He was wearing a black overcoat on top of his black pants over black leather boots.

“Where were you gone since the morning, Yamazaki-san?” I asked him casually.

“Just had some work to do,” He said cheerfully as he closed the door behind him.

CREEEEK. SHUT!

BANP. BANP. BANP. BANP. “You see, the celebrations of the inaugural of this year’s rankings have already begun. A whole crowd of hundreds of people dancing and singing is coming our way,” Kurayami said as he walked towards the door at the left corner of the restaurant. I turned to left as I looked at his back opening the door and going inside. “I’m in a hurry right now. Sorry, girls.”

SHUT! He banged shut the door behind him as he went inside.

Yumiko bent her back towards me, and with her mouth right in front of my right ear, she whispered, “Yamazaki-san’s onto something again. For the past some weeks, he goes in the morning and comes back by the evening every day.”

I frowned in doubt and turned my head to the front again, looking at her face. “Do you know what?”

“Mm-hmm,” She shook her head. “But I tried to get it out several times.”

***

Suzuki Tadashi

“Okay, so he was not really a good man?” Miura Asahi asked. He was standing in front of the barn which was locked by a huge wood plank. His black boots stood on top of dirt and soil on an unpaved and uneven road. He had a notepad in his left hand and a pen in his right, on which he was writing down as he heard the other guy in front of him in white shreds of tattered and dirty cloth and pants.

“Matsuda was a total bitch of a man, sir. Always speaking shit about others. That bitch buttered people like hell so that he can rent his horses easily. He always fought with others in the area, and cussed heavily. That licking bitch!”

“That’s enough,” Asahi said. His forehead had wrinkles as he wrote in his little notepad for a second, with the scribbling of the pen the only voice in the air for a second. “So, Takeuchi-san,” Asahi turned his head to the front. “Did that guy had a child servant?”